Size of a Pebble
by Demented Insane Spirit
Summary: Azureshipping. Anzu glared at him. “Your heart is the size of a pebble. It’s no wonder you can’t make friends.” He rolled his eyes. “Don’t be absurd. My heart isn’t even that big when it comes to you idiots.” One shot.


DIS: I think that if I could meet a guy like Kaiba, I would have some very fascinating discussions with him about human nature.

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_Title: Size of a Pebble_

_Rating: T_

_Genre: General/Romance_

_Summary: Azureshipping. Anzu glared at him. "Your heart is the size of a pebble. It's no wonder you can't make friends." He rolled his eyes. "Don't be absurd. My heart isn't even that big when it comes to you idiots." One shot._

_Disclaimer: I do not own YuGiOh_

_Notes/Warnings: Azureshipping; one shot_

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_Size of a Pebble_

Admittedly, Seto Kaiba enjoyed arguing with the female cheerleader of his enemy's group. But of course, he enjoyed arguing with anyone. Anzu Mazaki, with all her flaws and annoying traits, intrigued him to a degree that could prove to be rather dangerous. It was not just the arguing that interested him, but how impervious she was to any insult he threw at her, whereas any of her friends (Jounouchi being his prime example) would have a nice little conniption fit. He enjoyed that every once in awhile to smirk and snicker at the blonde idiot. With Anzu, if she had ever thrown such a tantrum, he would only be disgusted. The behavior did not suit her. For some reason, he found that she was more refined than she ought to be for a pauper – his idea of a pauper, in any case. She did not raise her voice, as it was not necessary. Her voice hardened, making her sound even more obstinate and confident than she truly was.

He supposed the confidence was what entertained him so much.

Beyond the actual argument and Anzu's annoying-yet-fascinating personality traits, Kaiba enjoyed pissing her friends off. It took very little to piss Jounouchi and Honda off; the two of them were two bombs that simply needed buttons to be pushed. With Yuugi, it took a bit more and he did not show his anger as readily or openly as his two companions. That did not mean Kaiba never saw it. Indeed, he saw the flash of fury in the little Mutou's eyes, the clenching of his jaw and fists, all of which made Kaiba chuckle inwardly in his head. And all he had to do was initiate an argument with Anzu to set all of these things in motion. Anzu didn't enter a conversation half-assed. She went full out and that meant concentrating all her attention on Kaiba, which her friends very much disliked.

That day, Kaiba was uninterested in the dirty looks that Jounouchi was sending him and sat in his desk near the window, reading his book silently. He had read this same book three times and still disagreed with virtually every aspect of it. _The Prince _by Niccolo Machiavelli had been a book that was read for his Modern Politics class and after buying it and rereading it, he decided that because the man was Italian, he was a complete moron. After all, what better conclusion could he come to? It should be remembered that Kaiba is a genius and if he disagreed with something, then he was right. And everyone else was wrong.

"Good morning." He glanced up to see Anzu pass his desk, waving. As per usual, he returned his attention back to his book and unlike the first few times he had done this, she chose not to nag at him about his manners. She still hadn't stopped greeting him, though. It had become yet another common event in his monotonous life. "Good morning, Jounouchi, Yuugi. Where's Honda?" There was a mumbled rejoinder from one or both of the boys. Kaiba tuned the three of them out and continued to read the sentence in chapter eighteen: _"Generally, men judge by the eye rather than the hand, for all men can see a thing, but few come close enough to touch it. All men will see what you seem to be..."_

_Well, at least there's one thing he got right about humans, _Kaiba mused with a dry twist of his mouth. "Well?" He questioned when someone settled on the desk in front of him. He knew without looking that it was Anzu and refused to raise his eyes from his book until she offered him something interesting enough to catch his attention. She generally did, but this was a process they always went through. "What do you want, Mazaki?"

"Do you love anyone besides Mokuba, Kaiba?" He frowned, unintentionally glaring at the page. He really disliked arguments about morals and ethics and most especially, _emotions, _when it came to her. She always had something to say that would put him off balance, even if he did not show how she affected him. He wondered if he ought to answer her question or abandon the topic. If he did not, the rest of his day would be hellacious. His days usually were when they started out with a discussion of morals, ethics, or emotions.

"Does it matter?" he returned. It was a safe enough response.

"Of course it does."

"Then no." He lowered his book, his thumb in place between the pages as he looked at her bright, lively face. For someone who hung out with degenerates, she certainly looked cheerful in the morning. All three of her friends were usually slumped over their desks, snoring their heads off. Nobody even bothered to wake them once class started unless Anzu was there. "Is there a point to this ridiculous conversation or do you just want to waste my time?"

"How come?" she persisted, ignoring his last sentence completely. "Aren't you ever lonely without anyone to keep you company? Don't you want friends?"

"Friends," Kaiba stated, "are for the weak and the stupid. I don't _need_ friends, Mazaki, and I would prefer you not to dull my senses by going on about how important it is to have healthy relationships with unrelated people. If you can find me ten sources where they say that it is so important to your life, then I will accept your claims. Otherwise, bring up a different topic or leave me to read my book." She glanced down at the book.

"Do you follow his philosophy then?" He sighed. "That the only person that you have to trust is yourself and if you surround yourself with just as important people, they will eventually overrule you? You're not a prince, Kaiba. You're a human being, even if you don't always act like it."

"I am laughing at your clever joke," Kaiba sarcastically said, marking his place in the book by folding the corner of the page back and setting _The Prince _aside.

"I'm not necessarily saying that you act like a robot," she continued a bit too flippantly for his liking, "although you really do, but that you don't show the emotions that humans are supposed to show. Not the positive ones, at least. You've shown greed, selfishness, and every other possible negative emotion, but nothing _good_, Kaiba. But there has to be something good in you. There's something good in everyone."

"I doubt it."

"You're not even defending yourself!"

"Why," he queried, raising an eyebrow, "should I defend myself against the truth, Mazaki, when I am well _aware_ that it is the truth? There is no intelligence in that and I refuse to act like you and your bumbling group of chimpanzees."

Anzu glared at him. "Your heart is the size of a pebble. It's no wonder you can't make friends." Kaiba sighed and saw that whatever that was bothering her was obstructing her brain's circulation and therefore making it impossible for her to introduce a good enough argument for him to pay any attention.

So, with a roll of his eyes, he said, "Don't be absurd. My heart isn't even that big when it comes to you idiots." He paused thoughtfully as he began to open his book and then added, "And I am not only referring to your friends, Mazaki. The entire human race is idiotic. We steal, we kill, and we corrupt. There is nothing in the human race that is admirable. Intelligence? Maybe we are more intelligent than animals in the sense that we aren't ruled by survival and more by reason, but that reason is what has caused our ultimate demise. We have corrupted the world and although we put the human race on a pedestal and kill animals that we believe are lower on the food chain, I think differently. I don't like anyone else but my brother because everyone else is filth. I am filth, my brother is filth, we are all filth when it comes down to what species we are. Within my species? I am better and my brother is better than me because he _does_ have a heart whereas I do not. Have I satisfied you with an adequate response, Mazaki, or do you wish to pester me some more about my moral code?"

"Do you have a moral code?"

"Yes."

"Then, no, Kaiba, I am more than satisfied." She smiled. "Even if it's a pessimistic view on human life...It makes sense somehow."

"Read Rousseau and it will make even more sense," was all he said in response. He opened his book and then raised his eyes a moment later when he saw that she was not leaving. His mouth turned down irritably. He was correct when he said that he was going to have a poor day. She just _had _to get into the morals issue of humans, didn't she? Well, she wasn't going to drag him into another damned moral discussion today. "_What_, Mazaki? I thought our discussion was finished."

"Am I a friend, Kaiba?"

"You can call yourself whatever you like," he snapped. "I'm not interested in slapping a label upon you."

"Alright." She slid off the desk and stood over him, her hands behind her back. "But I consider you a friend, even if you have a bad temper and foul-mouth my friends." She smiled when he glanced at her. She turned and left him to his book. He stared at the pages for a moment, glowering. He sighed and let the book fall from his hand onto the desk as he rested his chin in the palm of his hand, leaning his elbow on the desk. He stared moodily ahead of him.

Not for the first time, Kaiba wondered if the bothersome woman was worth his bad days. And, as usual, he concluded that she was. If he had to deal with an occasional bad day because she felt like bringing up morals, ethics, and/or emotions, then so be it; every other day was enjoyable.

Kaiba did, after all, enjoy arguing with a pretty, hot-headed lady.

_Finis_

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DIS: The romance is subtle, barely there. I realize how short this is, but beyond that conversation, I couldn't really decide what else to write. In any case, this is the first azureshipping one shot I've written in quite awhile, so tell me how I did. I'm a bit rusty...Please leave a review telling if you liked it or not. Ciao!


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